China: It's the Latest American Thing

American interest in China, held back for more than 20 years by mutual isolation, suspicion and animosity, has suddenly surged with the dramatic shift in United States‐Chinese relations. The interest in China extends to all things Chinese and involves a whole spectrum of activities, from fashions to food, from travel to trade, and from science to education.

The Chinese authorities, both at the embassy in Ottawa and in the delegation to the United Nations here, have been flooded with visa applications. Inquiries have been pouring into travel agencies that have prepared plans for trips to China.

Enrolment in China courses has risen dramatically on many campuses, in many cases doubling. Many universities and colleges have arranged seminars and symposiums about China.

China Films Popular

The large number of symposiums and conferences has created an unusual demand for films about China. National film distributors, such as McGrawHill and Time‐Life, report their. most popular China films have been booked many weeks in advance.

Despite the clamor for trade and visas, the Chinese have been slow to respond. Exports to China have been negligible, while American imports of Chinese goods since last June amount to only $5‐million. Only 200 to 300 people—‐none of them tourists—have been granted visas to China since last spring.

Within weeks of China's invitation to an American table tennis delegation, the tourist industry began to explore the possibilities of expansion into a totally new area. American Express developed a 22‐day tour for n850, with 12 scheduled for 1972.

Besides, American Express, dozens of American travel agencies are also trying to move into the China field. The Intraco Travel Agency of New York has developed a China program that includes a number of special tours, with the first tentatively scheduled for next month.

Special‐Interest Tours

Carl‐Eric Runsteen, president of Intraco, said that because the Chinese had made it clear that they were not interested in tourists as such, the tours he has planned are all for specialinterest groups, such as organizations of doctors, teachers, businessmen and “cultural type” people.

According to Mr. Runsteen, the Chinese have requested a personal letter from each visa applicant providing specific information, including why he wishes to go to China. Each letter, Mr. Runsteen said, must be translated into Chinese and forwarded to the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa, which in turn sends it to Peking for consideration. Intraco has sent to Ottawa ‘applications from 32 persons who are to take part in an “agribusiness” tour, originally scheduled for last Oct. 7 but since postponed. Mr. Runsteen said the 24‐day trip, now planned for March 2, would cost $2,300 for economy class, from Atlanta to Atlanta, with 10 day l inside China.

Because the Chinese refuse to deal directly with American travel agencies, many of them are using a Canadian intermediary, the Skyline Travel Agency in Vancouver.

Jack McLaren, head of Skyline, reported in a telephone interview that approximately two dozen American agencies were working through him to reach the Chinese. He said he had on hand 4,000 applications from Americans.

Many organizations are planning trips to China, either directly or through a travel agency. These include the League of Women Voters, the Asian Art Commission of San Francisco, the Harvard Club of Chicago, the World Council of Churches in Boston, the Kansas Museum, Local 771 of the American Federation of Teachers, with the support of the California Federation of Teachers State Council in Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco, and Women for International Understanding, a San Francisco. based group. So far as is known none have received Chinese approval.

One group that has received permission to go to China is the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars, an organization that has spoken out against American policies in Vietnam. The Committee, which sent a 15‐member delegation to China last spring, will send another next month.

The heightened interest in China has, predictably, had its effect on the campuses, Arne J. de Keijzer, a staff member of the National Committee on United States‐China Relations, an educational organization, reported that on a tour of 12 campuses across the country last fall he discovered that enrollment in China courses had increased dramatically.

The ranks of students of the Chinese language have also been swoljen. Columbia University reported an increase in its Chinese language courses, with enrollment in one intensive course in elementary Chinese rising from 5 to 19.

Language Classes Grow

Donna Swain, who is in charge of the foreign languages department at the New School for Social Research, reported similar changes. “Until now we've had so few people in Chinese we usually canceled the course,” she said. “Now we have so many people registering we don't know what to do with them. We're training new instructors. It seems that half our staff wants to learn Chinese.”

Miss Swain said the newer students were “different from the pre‐Ping‐Pong population—they are not interested in reading ancient documents; they're interested in China.”

A great many universities have held in addition to China symposiums and conferences functions known as China Night, or China Week, often sponsored by Chinese student associations.

California State College, in Long Beach, for example, recently held a China Week, which included demonstrations of traditional Chinese music and dancing, a lecture by a recent visitor to China, a discussion on China in the United Nations and talks on the problems of ISan Francisco's Chinatown.

Table Tennis Trip

Attempts to institute ex‘changes with mainland China have so far not met with much success, with the exception of the Chinese table tennis delegation, which will probably arrive in this country in late spring.

Morris Chalfen, producer of “Holiday on Ice,” last summer approached the Chinese about taking one of his ice shows to China. So far, he has not received approval. And Norman Singer, executive director of the New York City Center of Music and Drama, was rebuffed last June after he extended an invitation to the Chinese to bring a Peking Opera Troupe to the United States.

The reply from a Chinese official said in part: “Our model dramas are specially prepared for the appreciation of our working people, not for our enemy and money‐scented capitalists like you.”

The National Committee on U.S.‐China Relations reports rise in requests from teachers for information on how to start China programs. Committee officials say most of the requests are not from major cities but from small towns.

“Everything has gone through a 300 per cent jump,” said B. Preston Schoyer, executive director of the national committee. “Requests for literature are probably higher.”

The committee, formed in 1966, is an independent, nonpartisan educational organization. It sponsors conferences and provides speakers. Two of its staff members, Mr. de Keijzer and Arlene Posner, have just completed a book, “China; a Resource and Curriculum Guide,” to assist schools that wish to develop China programs.

One group that has been deeply affected by the new accessibility of China is the medical community. Dr. Victor W. Sidel, chief of social medicine at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, for instance, asserts that there must be a significant reform in the American medical system. A recent visitor to China, Dr. Sidel suggests; as do other returned American physicians and scientists, that there may be much that the United States can learn from China.

As a result of the generally glowing accounts brought back by American visitors, a bandwagon effect has been created and, according to one observer, “scientists are falling all over themselves wanting to go to China —even those who know nothing about China.”

Dr. John R. Hogness, president of the Institute of Medicine in the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, is attempting to develop a program for American doctors to study not only traditional Chinese medical techiques, such as acupuncture and herb therapy, but also developments in modern Chinese public health programs.

In trade, the euphoria of last spring has been replaced by more realistic attitude. There is greater realization that the Chinese are at present unwilling to trade directly with the United States and that, even if direct trade begins, its volume will probably be limited, with the Chinese more likely to be interested in selling than in buying.

Nevertheless, a new marketing service, known as Chintelex, has been organized to acquaint United States companies on procedures for doing business with China. Chintelex plans to put out a newsletter twice a month at a cost of $150 a year. A similar venture, The China Letter, provides monthly analyses of developments in China and costs $175 a year.

Trade Fair in Boston

An outdoor fair of Chinesehandicrafts and other goods will be held at the end of May in Boston, sponsored by the Museum of American China Trade. According to Paul E. Molitor, assistant director of the museum, the fair will be the first such display of goods from mainland China. Wholesalers will be able to order Chinese goods, based on samples obtained from a French company, he said.

In the publishing business, Mervyn W. Adams, editor of ‘Praeger, which has been a leader in the China field, said that “1972 looks like a banner year.” Miss Adams said that ‘in the next few months, Praeger would be coming out with several major works, including “Sino‐American Relations, 1949‐71,” by Roderick MacFarquhar, “The Role of the Military in Communist China,” by William W. Whitson, and “A History of the Chinese Communist Party,” by James P. Harrison.

She said that there was now a “strong interest in more controversial books, by upcoming young scholars, with a more sympathetic approach to the mainland, not just tired analyses of old documents.”

Old Approach Dead

“The cold war approach to Chinese studies seems dead,” she added. “The Chinese Communist experience is part of human experience—and some of their solutions—as in medicine or ecology, for example, and in applied science may have considerable relevance elsewhere.”

Other publishers are also producing books on China that are likely to become regarded as major works. These include “The Long March,” by Dick Wilson, published by The Viking Press, and “The Real China,” by Ross Terrill.

Mr. Terrill, an Australian teaching at Harvard who returned recently from his second visit to China, has already been widely acclaimed for two‐part series in The Atlantic Monthly.

Magazine articles on China range from the scholarly to the popular and appear in specialty publications as well as general circulation magazines. Playboy magazine, in its April issue, plans to publish seven poems by Mao Tse‐tung.

The Chinese impact has been most noticeable in fashions and decorating. Veronika Yhap, who is in charge of sales and marketing for Dragon Lady, a company that imports apparel from China, said: “The interest is fantastic. The buyers will take anything. If we run out of large, they'll take medium, and if we run out of medium, they'll take small. It's incredible.”

‘Interest Is Fantastic’

Even Mrs. Richard M. Nixon has been affected by the Chinese craze. The Ladies Home Journal has on the cover of its February issue a picture of the First Lady in a Chinesestyle gown. The gown, described as “opulent chinoiserie for grand evenings” is like many products of Western designers in that it evokes China's imperial past. The ornate design, the rich fabric and the large sleeves all hark back to an era that has been repudiated by the leaders in Peking.

Describing this situation, Mrs. Yhap said: “American designers try to revive imperial feelings. We try to introduce Americans to the real China of today—the people's suits, worn by the workers and peasants.” She said the suits, which sell for approximately $130 each, are popular in colleges.

The Chinese look extends to cosmetics. Ingenue, a fashion magazine for teen‐agers, offered advice in its January issue on how American. girls can capture the “essence of Chinese beauty: smooth, round hair styles; smooth, round face; almost oval eyes; outlined rose lips.” It suggested make‐up techniques to convey the impression of Oriental eyes, round face and a flatter nose.

More and more department stores are beginning to carry Chinese goods. Larry Herb, an assistant buyer at Bloomingdale's, said that the department store's China Passage section, which carries primarily wickerware and articles of rattan, straw and bamboo, had met with “a lot Of public enthusiasm.”

Bamboo Ginger Grinder

He said two of the most popular items were a handcarved bamboo ginger grinder, which sells for $4, and a porcelain neck warmer in the shape of a cat, which costs $17.50. “People are interested for the uniqueness,” he said.

The American interest in Chinese food also seems to have been fortified. Raymond A. Sokolov, food news editor of The New York Times, observed that Szechwan restaurants were increasing in number in New York.

“A lot of people are Chinese food buffs,” he said. “One man is learning gastronomic characters to read Chinese menus. He doesn't know any Chinese. Another man claims to have eaten in every restaurant in Chinatown.”

The interest in Chinese food appears to have taken a new twist. While most families are still content to take the children out to a Chinese restaurant, a growing number of Americans are trying their hand at preparing full‐scale Chinese dinners at home.

The interest in China has inevitably also focused attention on Chinese in the United States. As C. T. Hu, professor of comparative education at Columbia University's Teachers College, said, “We are the only living examples of Chinese available to the American public.”

Chinatown Coverage

Television networks, radio stations and publications have devoted much time and space to coverage of the Chinese in America. One radio station, WOR, devoted 24 hours to nonstop coverage of Chinatown last month.

In addition, publications devoted solely to Chinese are beginning to appear. Bridge Magazine, whose stated purpose is to bridge the gap between Chinese‐Americans and the general public, made its appearance last July.

Since then, two other publications that will specialize in the coverage of the Chinese have been announced. China in New York and Chinatown, neither of which have begun publication.

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A version of this archives appears in print on February 16, 1972, on Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: China: It's the Latest American Thing. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe